Robin Pare (Tas) in the Don Elliot Mustang. It is a good shot and quite a surprise to me as I wasn't aware they ever ran the car in NSW. Car is now owned by Chas Kelly and fully restored to that period's livery.We have plenty of shots of it on the oldracephotos website from 1966 thru to when Robin Bessant bought it in 1972 and ran it in Shell colours if your interested. Elliot then bought the Bryan Thomson Camaro for Pare to race.

Are you sure, Lindsay? I was not aware Elliot ever ran it outside Tas. I suspect the Kim Aunger car from SA is a possibility. From memory (unreliable at best!) it was white with orange stripes.

Hi Rob, if you look at some of the previous posts you will see it clearly at BP cnr Oran Park. Aunger's car ran at the same meeting. Certainly news to me and I can't recall seeing it mentioned in an RCN race report back then (Lynton - do you know which meeting it was or the date?). I have a full set of 1970 RCN's so I could check it easily. They did take the car to Bay Park, NZ too, in I think 1971? I wonder whether Kim Aunger actually had any influence of the Elliot car running at O Park - they had such a great battle at Baskerville in 1970.

Hi Rob, if you look at some of the previous posts you will see it clearly at BP cnr Oran Park. Aunger's car ran at the same meeting. Certainly news to me and I can't recall seeing it mentioned in an RCN race report back then (Lynton - do you know which meeting it was or the date?). I have a full set of 1970 RCN's so I could check it easily. They did take the car to Bay Park, NZ too, in I think 1971? I wonder whether Kim Aunger actually had any influence of the Elliot car running at O Park - they had such a great battle at Baskerville in 1970.

American Torque Thrust are still advailable now. 8 or 10"x 15". Though I feel in those days they were 9" wide,, with about 3" backspace.And a few different styles. Or maybe 5 spoke Ansens. Moffats Mustang had them when it first arrived though it gained Minilites quite quickly, which were 10" on all the 'big' cars.

There was a certain Mustang in historic group NC that ran rear Torque thrusts which were 8 and 1/2 inchs as opposed to the rules of 8 inch.

A friend of mine , Graham Slater, a great guy who sadly died just before Winton Historic Last year was a part time journo for racing car news as a contributor. He wrote a column titled Mainly Melbourne.

So he had a collection of car magazines that his wife has given to me. There are 7 x 55 tubs of them. Now that's a lot of magazines. I have just delved into the latest one and pulled out a racing car news special publication titled " The Fabulous Farm".

A history of the Tasman Cup races contested at Sydney's Warwick Farm circuit by the cream of International and Australian stars.

This magazine is in mint condition. It was printed in 1979 probably about 60 -70 pages

So if you want some info from it just ask and I will have a look

CheersPeter Sneddon

Pete...you may find that the National Library of Australia or your local library is interested in part or all of this great "find"....look after them

Hey, so was I! Didn't quite go on to achieve what that Brock guy did though...

Mini number 110 if you happen to see a photo Lynton!

Remember being overtaken (while towing my Mini with clapped out 52 Chev) on the Hay plains by Aunger towing his Mustang. He was doing a good 40 m.p.h more than me, would have been similar on the straight at Oran Park if we had been in the same race...

The Elliot Mustang was ordered and purchased new by Don Elliot thru a Hobart dealership.
It was one of the rare K Codes with HiPo 289 rated at 271 hp ex factory.
These were the same cars that Shelby purchased from Ford and sold as Shelby 350 and are
referred to now as the poor mans Shelby

The Elliot car, although road registered ,went onto the race track when brand new with wide
steel wheels originally.

I have just checked the programme for that 3rd Jan 1970 meeting and there is no Reno Gordini entered (maybe late entry) and there are two Simcas but both of them have a different number to the one pictured. One has a 1755 cc engine and the other has 3687cc. If my memory serves me correctly I think the Reno had a Reno engine.
Dale.

I have just checked the programme for that 3rd Jan 1970 meeting and there is no Reno Gordini entered (maybe late entry) and there are two Simcas but both of them have a different number to the one pictured. One has a 1755 cc engine and the other has 3687cc. If my memory serves me correctly I think the Reno had a Reno engine.Dale.

He won two North American Formula B championships for Chevron importer Fred Opert and was destined for greater things. I recall that Opert really rated Eyerly, and it must be remembered that he later went on to run Keke Rosberg in Formula Atlantic.

Spot on there, Bruce. 57A came straight off Lannock Motors used car lot! From memory it had about 50,000 miles up - nicely freed up - and all it had done was a new clutch, and valve springs. It most likely ended up back on the lot.

The mini driver behind me in that photo could be Fred Gibson.....I diced with him for quite a few laps.

Spot on there, Bruce. 57A came straight off Lannock Motors used car lot! From memory it had about 50,000 miles up - nicely freed up - and all it had done was a new clutch, and valve springs. It most likely ended up back on the lot.

The mini driver behind me in that photo could be Fred Gibson.....I diced with him for quite a few laps.

Freddie in the mighty 850!!!??? I think the pic is on Autopics Greg....get a big blow-up (oops, not that Dak Daks ever refuse to proceed!)

Gotta love the covered number plate - so you can sell the car on Tuesday (Monday's for getting the sticky tape off and giving it a wash).

A mate's brother got the shock of his life when he saw the dealer demonstrator he'd just bought featuring in the Bathurst 500 newsreel at the movies.

Bruce Moxon

Charlie Smith told me that he sold his class winning 64 Morris Cooper to Brian Foley after the Bathurst race and he immediately put it on his used car lot. It just so happened that the Cooper turned up on the cover of the next Catalina programme number plate and all. The guy who bought the Cooper then discovered that it had been raced at Bathurst and contacted Charlie.

The guy wasn't unhappy about it. He got a Cooper that went harder than most others did....

Pare's car was a road car done up in Tassie, Brauer's was the second Bob Jane Mustang.

Lee, those Torque Thrust wheels are avaiable in 15 x 6" too, so I'd say there's a fair list of sizes. I know this because my nephew bought a set for his Dodge.

Ray,The conjecture re the Mustangs. I'm reminded of Danny Kay's " The vessel with the pestle and the chalice from the palace".Sorry for that.

Well spotted, the two door [Grande Large] Simca. Not too many of them landed in Aus.The suggested 1755 cc engine, when I first saw this I thought Alfa Romeo ? What a wonderful choice of engines being available in later years for conversion, mostly Japanese. In 1977 I saw an early [90A] with a Datsun 1600 in Adelaide.

"A mate's brother got the shock of his life when he saw the dealer demonstrator he'd just bought featuring in the Bathurst 500 newsreel at the movies."

Re the earlier posted pic of the Viva on it's head......... I purchased that Mini DeLuxe seen in the background, used from Pelligrini Chrysler at Kensington N.S.W. in 1969. I was unaware of the car's history at that time. It was a BMC prepared entry for Kevin Bartlett and Ron Haylen in 1965.
I have owned a few Minis over the years, DWT-912 was a definitely one of the better ones.

"A mate's brother got the shock of his life when he saw the dealer demonstrator he'd just bought featuring in the Bathurst 500 newsreel at the movies."

Re the earlier posted pic of the Viva on it's head......... I purchased that Mini DeLuxe seen in the background, used from Pelligrini Chrysler at Kensington N.S.W.in 1968. I was unaware of the car's history at that time. It was a BMC prepared entry for Kevin Bartlett and Ron Haylen in 1965. I have owned a few Minis over the years, DWT-912 was a definitely one of the better ones.

As I recall the Mini De-Luxe that Ron and I drove that year was a class winner. Can anyone verify that result?

"A mate's brother got the shock of his life when he saw the dealer demonstrator he'd just bought featuring in the Bathurst 500 newsreel at the movies."

Re the earlier posted pic of the Viva on it's head......... I purchased that Mini DeLuxe seen in the background, used from Pelligrini Chrysler at Kensington N.S.W.in 1968. I was unaware of the car's history at that time. It was a BMC prepared entry for Kevin Bartlett and Ron Haylen in 1965. I have owned a few Minis over the years, DWT-912 was a definitely one of the better ones.

Does that say that in those days, a well-used & raced blueprinted engine in a body prepared by the factory racing teamcould outperform & maybe outlast a bog-standard "within-tolerance" production-line car, when they were used as road cars?

The photo of the inverted Viva at Murray's shown earlier was taken during Saturday practice. The number plates on the BMC entered cars were removed for the Sunday thrash.
The Viva 58A received some minor panel damage and a replacement screen after it gently tripped over the first time on Saturday arvo. The car was rolled big time during the race at exactly the same spot, with far more dire consequences. That is the famous footage of the Viva prang that Channel 7 re-runs every October.
Beating the "poverty pack" Cortinas in Class A was a big ask for the Mini De Luxe.